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Topic: HELP!!! Car Jerks During Driving!!! (Read 53759 times)

I really need some help here. Recently, within the last week, while driving my truck has started jerking while at a constant speed. At first I thought it might be the gas (water in it) but that turned out to be a wrong guess. It has gotten worst over the last week. Whenever I attempt to accelerate my truck jerks (sometimes) and even while driving at steady speeds. I am worried that it might be something serious as while looking at my gauges in my truck my batter indicator jumps up and down slightly (just noticed that today). It almost seems like a fuel issue but I have no idea. I am thinking of taking it into a mechanic tomorrow to have it checked out. Does anyone here have any idea(s) as to what it could be? My friend suggested it might be the O2 sensory as he had issues with their car jerking too but only when pressing on the gas. Thanks for any help.

Info: 1996 Ford Ranger 164,000 Miles

I've never had ANY problems with this truck as I am good with taking care of it. Thanks again.

My first thought would be tune-up related stuff like spark plugs and spark plug wires. if the plug wires have more than 50K miles on them and you want to take a "guess" then that would be my guess, plugs and wires. Althought it could be something more serious like a transmission problem??

I would defenatly check the distrubuter and the distributer roter inside the destributer cap. Take the cap off, but make sure you know where the plug wires plug into, number them if you have to. Then take off the cap, and check the gap between the router and the cap, and if its a real big gap, I'd say one centimeter is too big, maybe look at replacing the distributer and roter. and if its not that big, take steel wool, or something, and scrape off any corrosion. This sometimes gets very corroded, and can cause "misses". Reassemble everything, and take it for a spin. Just make sure the plug wires get plugged back on the right spot. Good luck.

the part about the alt gauge is interesting. if there where an intermittant short, that could cause the ing system 2 die and come back. look closely at your starting and charging system. especially any heavy curret wires. just a guess. let us know.

i had a prob when my 1995 toyota tacoma 4 clyinder would buck all the time when on the gas. it was worse in the cold. it was sending codes for mis fireing cylinders. The car had a full tune up and nothing....after i read the last 2 posts i then check and realized the ignition coil pack was not replace...i replaced it the check engine light is now off and runs beautiful......replace the ignition coil pack......THANK YOU